A Denver judge on Monday ruled prospective candidates in the recall elections of Democratic Sens. John Morse of Colorado Springs and Angela Giron of Pueblo can petition onto the ballot up until 15 days before the Sept. 10 election. The ruling falls in line with the state constitution and makes it difficult for clerks and the secretary of state to follow a new elections law that requires ballots to be printed and mailed to voters.

“The voters expect a recall on Sept. 10 and we need to roll up our sleeves and deliver this election. My office is working closely with the county clerks and members of the public to address questions and concerns about the conduct of these recalls,” Gessler, a Republican, said in a statement. His office will hold a public hearing Thursday in Denver to address any concerns voters from El Paso County’s Senate District 11 and Pueblo’s Senate District 3 might have.

Clerks in El Paso and Pueblo counties had followed state statute and allowed a 10-day window from when the governor set the election date to allow candidates to submit 1,000 valid signatures so they could appear on the ballot. Republicans Bernie Herpin and George Rivera submitted enough signatures, and their names are the only ones that currently appear on ballots in Colorado Springs and Pueblo, respectively.

Since this week’s ruling Libertarian, Jan Brooks, has come forward and filed the necessary paperwork to collect signatures and get on the ballot in Colorado Springs. Democrat Richard Anglund is now petitioning to get on the ballot in Senate District 3. Under the new deadline, both have until Aug. 26 to the submit signatures.

“Because of this ruling thousands of people will be disenfranchised with this style of election,” Ortiz said. “They’re expecting mail ballots and will not get them. Voters for a month have been informed this will be an all mail election and it’s not going to happen.”

Questions of if overseas military voters could perhaps be disenfranchised have also surfaced since Monday’s ruling. El Paso County Clerk Wayne Williams has already mailed more than 600 ballots to overseas voters and said he’s concerned some military personnel, for example, won’t be able to cast votes with an updated candidate list if they don’t have access to the Internet. Absentee military voters have the option of e-mailing or faxing ballots back to the county clerks in their respective districts.

Gessler insisted Wednesday that “every eligible voter” in El Paso County’s Senate District 11 and Pueblo’s Senate District 3 “will have the chance to cast a ballot on September 10.”

Both clerks estimate increased costs that will exceed $200,000 to conduct the special elections of Morse and Giron who are faced with the recalls for their support of tougher Colorado gun laws.

It’s more than a bit odd that both Democrat Morse and “Republican” Ryan Call are both peddling the line about “disenfranchising military voters” (as if either actually cares) – both are WRONG.

Given the tight timelines of a Recall vote, and the long time required to deliver ballots to military voters overseas by MAIL, electronic DELIVERY of the ballots is the BEST way to ensure that military personnel get their ballots on time to vote.

This is a very personal issue for me, as I have been disenfranchised TWICE while deployed because my ballots failed to arrive in time (or at all) –
the first time when deployed to Afghanistan in 2002, the second time when assigned to Fort Bragg for military training in 2006.

In 2002, I got my ballot late (despite requesting a military absentee ballot in AUGUST, it failed to arrive on time).
In 2006, also having requested my ballot in August, it NEVER arrived.

In both cases, had the system recently put into place by Secretary Scott Gessler been available, I would have been able to download a ballot in time to mail in my vote – just as some 90% of military voters deployed overseas NOW can do.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.